Editing Wilhelm Bleek

{{Short description|German linguist (1827–1875)}}{{Inline|date=May 2025}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Wilhelm Bleek
| image       = Wilhelm Bleek.jpg
| alt         = Wilhelm Bleek
| caption     = Wilhelm Bleek
| other_names = 
| occupation  = German linguist
| birth_name = Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek
| birth_date  = {{birth date|df=yes|1827|03|08}}
| birth_place = [[Berlin]], [[German Confederation]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1875|08|17|1827|03|08|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Mowbray, Cape Town|Mowbray]], [[Cape Colony]] 
| burial_place       = Wynberg Cemetery
| children           = [[Dorothea Bleek]]
}}

'''Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek''' (8 March 1827 – 17 August 1875) was a German [[linguistics|linguist]]. His work included ''A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages'' and his great project jointly executed with [[Lucy Lloyd]]: The Bleek and Lloyd Archive of [[ǀxam language|ǀxam]] and [[!Kung language|!kun]] texts. A short form of this eventually reached press with ''[[Specimens of Bushman Folklore]]'', which [[Laurens van der Post]] drew on heavily.

==Early life and career==

Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was born in [[Berlin]] on 8 March 1827. He was the eldest son of [[Friedrich Bleek]], Professor of Theology at [[Berlin University]] and then at the [[University of Bonn]], and Augusta Charlotte Marianne Henriette Sethe. He graduated from the University of Bonn in 1851 with a doctorate in linguistics, after a period in Berlin where he went to study Hebrew and where he first became interested in [[African languages]]. Bleek's thesis featured an attempt to link North African and [[Khoikhoi]] (or what were then called Hottentot) languages – the thinking at the time being that all African languages were connected. After graduating in Bonn, Bleek returned to Berlin and worked with a [[zoologist]], Dr [[Wilhelm Peters|Wilhelm K H Peters]], editing vocabularies of [[East African languages]]. His interest in African languages was further developed during 1852 and 1853 by learning [[Egyptian Arabic]] from Professor [[Karl Richard Lepsius]], whom he met in Berlin in 1852.

Bleek was appointed official linguist to Dr [[William Balfour Baikie]]'s [[Niger]] [[Tshadda Expedition]] in 1854. Ill-health (a [[Tropical disease|tropical fever]]) forced his return to England where he met [[George Edward Grey|George Grey]] and [[John William Colenso]], the Anglican [[Bishop of Natal]], who invited Bleek to join him in Natal in 1855 to help compile a [[Zulu language|Zulu]] grammar. After completing Colenso's project, Bleek travelled to [[Cape Town]] in 1856 to become Sir George Grey's official interpreter as well as to catalogue his private library. Grey had philological interests and was Bleek's patron during his time as [[Governor of the Cape]]. The two had a good professional and personal relationship based on an admiration that appears to have been mutual. Bleek was widely respected as a [[philologist]], particularly in the Cape. While working for Grey he continued with his philological research and contributed to various publications during the late 1850s. Bleek requested examples of [[African literature]] from missionaries and travellers, such as the Revd W Kronlein who provided Bleek with [[Nama people|Namaqua]] texts in 1861.

In 1859 Bleek briefly returned to Europe in an effort to improve his poor health but returned to the Cape and his research soon after. In 1861 Bleek met his future wife, Jemima Lloyd, at the [[boarding house]] where he lived in Cape Town (run by a Mrs Roesch), while she was waiting for a passage to England, and they developed a relationship through correspondence. She returned to Cape Town from England the following year.

Bleek married Jemima Lloyd on 22 November 1862. The Bleeks first lived at The Hill in [[Mowbray, Cape Town|Mowbray]] but moved in 1875 to [[Charlton House, Cape Town|Charlton House]]. Jemima's sister, [[Lucy Lloyd]], joined the household, became his colleague, and carried on his work after his death.

When Grey was appointed [[Governor of New Zealand]], he presented his collection to the [[National Library of South Africa]] on condition that Bleek be its [[curator]], a position he occupied from 1862 until his death in 1875. In addition to this work, Bleek supported himself and his family by writing regularly for ''[[Het Volksblad]]'' throughout the 1860s and publishing the first part of his ''A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages'' in London in 1862. The second part was also published in London in 1869 with the first chapter appearing in manuscript form in Cape Town in 1865. Unfortunately, much of Bleek's working life in the Cape, like that of his sister-in-law after him, was characterised by extreme financial hardship which made his research even more difficult to continue with.

== San people (Bushmen) ==
Bleek's first contact with [[San people]] (Bushmen) was with prisoners at [[Robben Island]] and the Cape Town Gaol and House of Correction, in 1857. He conducted interviews with a few of these prisoners, which he used in later publications. These people all came from the [[Burgersdorp]] and [[Colesberg]] regions and spoke variations of one similar-sounding "Bushman" language. Bleek was particularly keen to learn more about this "[[Khoisan languages|Bushman]]" language and compare it to examples of "Bushman" vocabulary and language earlier noted by [[Hinrich Lichtenstein]] and obtained from missionaries at the turn of the 19th century.

In 1863 resident magistrate Louis Anthing introduced the first [[ǀXam language|ǀXam]]-speakers to Bleek. He brought three men to Cape Town from the Kenhardt district to stand trial for attacks on farmers (the prosecution was eventually waived by the [[Attorney General]]). In 1866 two San prisoners from the Achterveldt near Calvinia were transferred from the [[Breakwater Convict Station|Breakwater prison]] to the Cape Town prison, making it easier for Bleek to meet them. With their help, Bleek compiled a list of words and sentences and an alphabetical vocabulary. Most of these words and sentences were provided by Adam Kleinhardt (see Bleek I-1, UCT A1.4.1).

[[File:The-Hill-early-1870s-BC151-B1226-This-is-the-only-photograph-of-the-Hill-dating-from W640.jpg|thumb|The Hill in Mowbray in the early 1870s when the Bleeks lived there and where many of the ǀXam prisoners interviews occurred]]

In 1870 Bleek and [[Lucy Lloyd|Lloyd]], by now working together on the project to learn "Bushman" language and record personal narratives and folklore, became aware of the presence of a group of 28 [[ǀXam]] prisoners (San from the central interior of southern Africa) at the Breakwater Convict Station and received permission to relocate one prisoner to their home in Mowbray so as to learn his language. The prison chaplain, Revd Fisk, was in charge of the selection of this individual – a young man named |a!kunta. But because of his youth, |a!kunta was unfamiliar with much of his people's folklore and an older man named [https://www.capetownmuseum.org.za/they-built-this-city/kabbo ||kabbo] was then permitted to accompany him. ||kabbo became Bleek and Lloyd's first real teacher, a title by which he later regarded himself. Over time, members of ||kabbo's family and other families lived with Bleek and Lloyd in Mowbray, and were interviewed by them. Amongst the people interviewed by Bleek was [[!Kweiten-ta-Ken]]. Many of the |Xam-speakers interviewed by Bleek and Lloyd were related to one another. Bleek and Lloyd learned and wrote down their language, first as lists of words and phrases and then as stories and narratives about their lives, history, folklore and remembered beliefs and customs.

Bleek, along with Lloyd, made an effort to record as much anthropological and ethnographic information as possible. This included genealogies, places of origin, and the customs and daily life of the informants. Photographs and measurements (some as specified by [[Thomas Huxley]]'s global [[ethnographic]] project, see Godby 1996) were also taken of all their informants in accordance with the norms of scientific research of the time in those fields. More intimate and personal painted portraits were also commissioned of some of the [[ǀXam language|Xam]] teachers.

Although Bleek and [[Lucy Lloyd|Lloyd]] interviewed other individuals during 1875 and 1876 (Lloyd doing this alone after Bleek's death), most of their time was spent interviewing only six individual |Xam contributors. Bleek wrote a series of reports on the language and the literature and folklore of the |xam-speakers he interviewed, which he sent to the Cape Secretary for Native Affairs. This was first in an attempt to gain funding to continue with his studies and then also to make Her Majesty's Colonial Government aware of the need to preserve San folklore as an important part of the nation's heritage and traditions. In this endeavour Bleek must surely have been influenced by Louis Anthing.

== Death ==
[[Image:Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (1827–1875) - grave in Wynberg Cemetery.jpg|thumb|300px|Wilhelm Bleek's grave, Wynberg Cemetery, Cape Town]]
Bleek died in Mowbray on 17 August 1875, aged 48, and was buried in [[Wynberg, Cape Town|Wynberg]] [[Anglican]] cemetery in Cape Town along with his two infant children, who had died before him. His all-important work recording the |Xam language and literature was continued and expanded by [[Lucy Lloyd]], fully supported by his wife Jemima. In his obituary in the South African Mail of 25 August 1875, he was lauded in the following terms: "As a comparative philologist he stood in the foremost rank, and as an investigator and authority on the [[South African languages]], he was without peer."

== Bleek collection ==
The Bleek collection is an archive of papers about the San people by Bleek, his daughter Dorothea, Lucy Lloyd, and G. W. Stow. It also includes photographic albums. These materials are held at the [[University of Cape Town Libraries]] and in the special collections of the South African Library, also in Cape Town. In 1997 this archive was added by [[UNESCO]] to its [[Memory of the World Programme|Memory of the World international register]], recognising it as documentary heritage of global importance.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Bleek Collection |url=https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/bleek-collection |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241222145229/https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/bleek-collection |archive-date=2024-12-22 |access-date=2025-05-02 |publisher=UNESCO Memory of the World Programme}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[!Kweiten-ta-ǀǀKen]]
*[[Kabbo]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Bleek, Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel|first=Stanley|last=Lane-Poole|volume=5}}
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Bleek, Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel}}
*{{cite book|first=Wilhelm |last=Bleek|title=Handbook of African, Australian and Polynesian Philology|volume=In 3 volumes|location=London|publisher=Trübner & Co.|date=1858–1863}}
*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/comparativegramm00blee |title=A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages|location=London|publisher=Trübner & Co. |date=1862|volume= Part I}} Part II published in 1869.
*{{cite book|last=Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel|first= Bleek|title=Reynard the Fox in South Africa: Or, Hottentot Fables and Tales|url=https://archive.org/details/reynardfoxinsou01bleegoog|year=1864|publisher=Trübner and Company|location=London}} (Chiefly translated from original manuscripts in the library of His Excellency Sir [[George Edward Grey|George Grey]])
*{{cite book|last=Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel|first= Bleek|title=A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-Lore and Other Texts. Second Report Concernng Bushman Researches, Presented to Both Houses of the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope, by Command of His Excellency the Governor|year=1875|publisher=J. C. Juta.|location=Cape Town|url=https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb11309320?page=1}}
*''Über den Ursprung der Sprache.'' (Herausgegeben mit einem Vorwort von Dr. [[Ernst Haeckel]].) Weimar, H. Böhlau (1868)
*''[[Specimens of Bushman Folklore]].'' (by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd) London, G. Allen (1911)
*Otto H. Spohr: ''Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek, a bio-bibliographical sketch.'' Cape Town, University of Cape Town Libraries (1962)
*Walter Köppe: ''Philologie im südlichen Afrika: Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (1827–1875).'' Zeitschrift für Germanistik, Neue Folge 3 (1998)
*[[E. F. K. Koerner|Konrad Körner]]: ''Linguistics and evolution theory. (Three essays by [[August Schleicher]], Ernst Haeckel and Wilhelm Bleek)'' Amsterdam-Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company (1983)
*Deacon, J and Dowson, T. (eds) 1996. Voices from the Past. Johannesburg: Wits University Press
*{{cite book|last=Skotnes|first=Pippa |title=Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of the Bushmen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jFZzAAAAMAAJ|year=1996|publisher=University of Cape Town Press|isbn=978-0-7992-1652-3}}
*Skotnes, Pippa (eds) 2007. Claim to the Country, the Archive of Lucy Lloyd and Wilheim Bleek. Johannesburg: Jacana Media.
* {{cite book|last=Lewis-Williams|first=J. David |title=Stories that Float from Afar: Ancestral Folklore of the San of Southern Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXbe0UrMdREC|year=2000|publisher=New Africa Books|isbn=978-0-86486-462-8}}
*{{cite journal|last=Bousman|first= Britt |title=Lucy Lloyd and the University of Texas Copy of Bleek's "A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-Lore and Other Texts|journal=The Digging Stick|volume=39|issue=2|pages=5–8|date=August 2022| url=https://digital.library.txst.edu/items/5361134a-8136-4e42-95e0-5519858f85f7}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/ Bleek and Lloyd Archive online]
*[https://laura-7.atavist.com/mg_the_storytellers_map South Africa's greatest storyteller]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bleek, Wilhelm}}
[[Category:1827 births]]
[[Category:1875 deaths]]
[[Category:Anthropological linguists]]
[[Category:Cultural anthropologists]]
[[Category:19th-century German anthropologists]]

[[Category:Karoo]]
[[Category:Scholars from the Kingdom of Prussia]]
[[Category:Linguists from Germany]]
[[Category:Cape Colony people]]
[[Category:People from Berlin]]
[[Category:University of Bonn alumni]]
[[Category:Linguists of Khoisan languages]]